Mojo Monday on a Sunday- Take 2

I was a bad girl this morning and slept in. I'm just weary... Not that I need more sleep, but the emotional weariness. I think I might need to bake something later today. ;)

I did take a little time this morning to create a last minute card for this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I was intrigued by those two rectangular panels, and really wanted to play with them a little bit. Plus, my Bloom & Grow dp has been calling my name. For the rectangular panels, I stamped the vine from PTI's Beyond Basic Borders. Then I stamped a teapot from Tea for Two, cut it out, and popped it up on dimensionals.

I really like the warm feel of this card. It's almost a monochromatic... except for that little hint of green ribbon. I thought the "sheerness" of it added a nice subtle touch. I'm in desperate need to thank you cards at this time of year for teacher gifts, parent helper gifts, staff gifts, you name it. So, forgive the excessive appearance of thank you cards for the next few days!

In addition to some necessary "melancholy mood" baking, I have to pick a a few more tubs to store my classroom supplies in until I can find a new job. I also need to make something for dinner... Hmmm... maybe some yummy comfort food!

Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Beyond Basic Borders, Tea for Two
Paper- Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, My Mind's Eye dp- Bloom & Grow
Ink- Tangerine Tango
Accessories- brads, ribbon, dimensionals, nestabilities, cb

Viva la Verve!

Happy weekend! I don't think this weekend could have come soon enough. Doesn't it seem like the work weeks after a vacation just drag on and on? And yet, a huge part of me didn't want it to end. I only have 4 days of my job left. I think reality finally hit yesterday. I was pretty much an emotional train wreck at school... trying to hide it from the kids. The end is so near, that I can't live in denial anymore. I'm packing up my classroom at the school that is so near and dear to my heart. I'm leaving a phenomenal workplace, friends, and co-workers all because California didn't pay their bills responsibly. It stinks.

It was nice to sleep in a bit this morning, and I woke determined to conquer the Viva la Verve sketch challenge issued yesterday. I peeked at it yesterday and went into a full-fledged panic. So much "stuff" on it! Ack! The twist was a "twist of three." We had to use 3 or more paper colors, 3 different stamp sets, and three different embellishments. Busy, busy, busy... so not me. But, like I said, I had to conquer this!

I started with my new Washington Apple dp out and decided to pull colors from it. I love this squared patterned paper and went from there. Choosing the stamps was actually the easiest part of this card. Then I got the ribbon, button, and stickles on the butterfly all put on the card and stared at it for a while. I thought I needed one more embellishment and started worrying about where to put it so that it wouldn't crowd the card... Then, thank goodness, I realized the button and twine counted! Yahoo! I'm calling this card done!

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Beautiful Kindness, Thanks so Much, Filigree Fantasy
Paper- Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Red Riding Hood, So Saffron, Washington Apple dp
Ink- Red Riding Hood, Summer Sun
Accessories- SU scallop punch, stickles, ribbon, red twine, button, dimensionals

A Mini Vacation

Ahhh.... A weekend away with good friends, good food, and incredible views. I haven't made any cards the last few days because I was out of town. My girlfriends Amy and Michelle escaped with me up to June Lake (my hometown) for some fun times. We covered the Eastern Sierras pretty well, but I think we would all agree that time went way too quickly.

Since I don't have any cards to share today, here are a few of my favorite pictures from our little getaway.

View from above Twin Lakes.

Horseshoe Lake

Dinner at the Mobil Station (there's a gormet chef inside!)

Us girlies. It was so cold!

We did a day trip to Bodie- the largest surviving Ghost town in the Western US. This is a view down the main street.

More Bodie- city shot.

Kayaking on the lake... Not a bad view, eh?!

Viva la Verve!

Here's my card for this week's Viva la Verve sketch challenge over on splitcoaststampers. The twist this week was to use our favorites: favorite colors, favorite stamps, and favorite embellishments.

I am completely in love with Baja Breeze. They seriously need to make this color a permanent fixture in the next catalog... It can't go away! I'm going to have to buy a million packs of it before the current catalog expires. I also love how it looks with Chocolate Chip, so that made picking colors really simple.

Since this is a Verve challenge, I pulled out my favorite Verve stamp, Psalm 46:10. Every time I use this stamp, I start singing the Steven Curtis Chapman song... Back in college, we used his song in my conducting class. I had to tear that song apart so that I could properly conduct it for a choir. Even though I listened/sang his a million times, it never gets old. I just love the words and knowing that no matter what He IS God. Beautiful, isn't it?!

My favorite embellishment is definitely ribbon, and buttons are definitely working their way up there. Buttons are a more recent discovery for me. I just wasn't sure how to use them on my cards and make them look good, but the more I play with them, the more I love 'em too!

Have a great rest of your week! Can't wait until Friday and my mini-holiday weekend getaway!


Supplies-
Stamps- Verve: Psalm 46:10
Paper- Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Paper Loft dp, Baja Breeze dp
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- Ribbon, Buttons, Twine

Sweet Raspberry Sunday Suite

... I had to combine the names somehow! Since I'm short on time this week, I combined to challenges to create this card. I used Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch and Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge.

I was out all weekend partying to celebrate one of my really good friend's 30th birthday. We had an extremely yummy breakfast over at her parents house, cruised through Anaheim, had dinner at Benihana's, and spent all day Sunday at Disneyland. It was tons of fun, but quite exhausting, and I had no stamping time. I'll have to post a few pictures of us girls painting the town red!

For this card, I used some of my Bitty Dots dp (love this stuff) and my new Tea for Two set by Papertreyink. I stamped the teapot, cut it out, and popped it up in the center. I used my chocolate chip stampin' write marker to create the border. Some little pink jewels added some shine to the corner. I really like how this card turned out! The cheery colors will hopefully make someone feel a tinsy bit better when they are feeling down.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Tea for Two
Paper- Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Bitty Dots (Aqua Mist & Berry Sorbet)
Ink- Chocolate Chip
Accessories- Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker, jewels, stickles, dimensionals

Open House

Here are some pictures of my classroom this year, as promised. My parent helpers did an INCREDIBLE job putting up my room this year. With the bum arm, there was no possible way I could have made it look even a tiny bit as good as they made me look!

I had a good turn out: all but 3 kids came with their parents. I've had better years, but they've all been different. I'm so glad it's over and I can now focus on finishing the year up. We only have 14 days of school left! Crazy!

It's a little sad to think that this is my last Open House at this school. I'm still being laid-off due to the budget cuts coming from Sacramento. I am a tenured teacher, but the cuts are so severe that the pain is being felt deeply. I've had four wonderful years here and it has been my home; a wonderful home.

When Life Gives you Lemons...

... make Lemonade!

Amidst the crazy schedule and no down time, a wonderful stamper nominated me for an amazing award! Purple D passed on the "Lemonade Stand" award to me! I'm so honored!

This award is passed on to other bloggers whom show great attitude and gratitude. What a {sweet} award! I love looking at the cards other people create, and often take inspiration from them, filing them away for a later date. Commenting is such a great way to show people you appreciate the art that they are creating AND took the time to share!

So, thank you Purple D! What a great thing to come home to after a long day!

I will have to ponder who to pass this on to and I'll come right back and edit this to include them. I got so excited, I had to post first! lol

OK. I'm back with my nominees. I know it's not quite the 5-10 as asked, but it's start! It so hard to choose!
- Melanie @ Card Designs by Melanie
- Monique @ Self Expressions

The rules (to pick up the Lemonade Stand Award):
- Comment on this blog;
- Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog;
- Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude;
- Link to your nominees within your blog post;
- Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award;
- Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

Thanks for stopping by!

May Madness

Holy moly, I'm busy this week. I don't think I'm home before 9 or 10 o'clock any day this week. Meetings, dinners, Open House, birthday party... Seriously, doesn't it just seem that these things all tend to fall during one short period of time?! That's my week.

We had a minimum day at school today because we have Open House tomorrow. It's great to kick the kids out the door early and have the afternoon off for a change. But I'm off again this evening for dinner over at my cousin's house. I know that's a fun thing... but it's still one more thing.

My room actually came together pretty well for Open House this year. Due to the broken elbow, the moms and dads of my kids had to put everything up for me! It was definitely the easiest preparation I've had yet... but it was still stressful wondering if everything was going to get done since I couldn't do it myself. But they did it! They were awesome! I think I had about 5 people working in my room to put the finishing touches on the walls. They were AMAZING! I am so grateful to them! I'll take some pictures tomorrow once it is all staged for the parents and share them on here. It looks great!

I did manage to create a quick card in my mini afternoon off. There's actually very little stamping on this. I stamped the polka dots in Versamark and embossed them in white, and then stamped the sentiment. Quick and easy.

Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Polka Dot Backgrounds, Beyond Basic Backgrounds
Paper- Whisper White, Old Olive, Haiku dp
Ink- Versamark, Old Olive
Accessories- White ep, ribbon, button, twine, SU scallop punch

Viva la Verve!

Amber was nice to me this week and gave us all a sketch that has not one circle on it! Hooray! (Pearls don't count) Thanks, Amber! I don't know what it is about circle images or accents. They just make me work. It always takes me forever to figure out how to make them look good. They try my patience- that's the phrase I'm looking for. I like me some nice corners, straight lines... clean.

Anyways, on to the card. I love how this card turned out. When I first saw that the twist this week was a color challenge, and that we had to use some shade of green and blue, my first thought was pastels... and I don't use very many pastels. So, Wild Wasabi and Not Quite Navy to the rescue! I've had this dp by Basic Grey sitting around for about a year and it turned out to be the perfect moment to employ it! I pulled the colors from the dp and went from there.

This is another simple card.... I'm still working mostly right handed. I just can't grip anything, push anything, put pressure on anything with the left arm yet... grrrr. I'm ready for all the weirdness to go away now, thanks. Though there are a few layers of paper, nothing is popped up. The only embellishments are the pearls. Clean, simple, and beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Meditations

Paper- Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Basic Grey dp

Ink- Not Quite Navy, Wild Wasabi

Accessories- Pearls, sponge

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #5

Good morning and Happy Saturday! I absolutely love sleeping in on Saturdays... not to say that I sleep in late (this whole being an adult thing and waking up at the same time my alarm goes off even though it isn't even set thing really stinks!). But it felt nice to lay in bed and realize that I had nowhere to be, no one waiting for me. I could lay there as long as I wanted.

I really wanted to play along with Dawn McVey's color challenge for this week. The colors she chose are ones that I would probably have never thought to use together, but I really like how this turned out! I definitely had to play with them a bit, and I tried using a few different sketches, but they required too many dp papers or decorative backgrounds. With such bright colors, I needed the layout to be a bit simpler this week. Enter Taylor's Cupcake Challenge! I love to play along with her sketches, but have been sadly absent from them since January! Ah! It was definitely time to break that long silence.

I stamped the image in Regal Rose and sponged some Berry Sorbet onto the ends for a little shading. The dp is Bitty Dots by Papertreyink in Raspberry Fizz. I didn't have any coordinating ribbon, so I pulled out some white grossgrain and colored it with my copic markers. Lastly, I added a little bling with a row of rhinestones from Michael's.... love those things.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- Verve: Because of You

Paper- Whisper White, Basic Gray, Bitty Dots dp

Ink- Regal Rose, Berry Sorbet

Accessories- Ribbon, copic marker, sponge, rhinestones, SU scallop punch

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Friday! I thought the weekend was never going to come. I am sooo looking forward to relaxing and reading this weekend.

Well, I've had this sitting in my room for way too long and it's been horrible keeping it a secret (as evidenced by the little pieces that slipped through the cracks onto the blog). I made my Mother's Day gift about two weekend's ago.

My mom has been talking about getting small card packs or other things for raffles over the next few months. That launched my thoughts into give HER a stack of cards for Mother's Day, but I knew I wanted to package them in a fancy way. A long story made short, I stumbled across "My Timeless Templates" by Papertreyink and decided to give one a try. LOVE THEM! It was so easy and yet so effective! I did have to alter one of the pockets inside because it was too small for typical A2 envelopes.

This also aligns with Verve's project parade for this month which is to make something special for the women in our lives. I used my Verve Mother's Day Plain Jane stamp on the cover as well as the Thanks so Much stamp on the card.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Viva la Verve!

Wow. I think this is the latest in the week I've ever completed a Viva la Verve sketch. Darn elbow. This once again is pretty much a right-handed card. No crazy cutting out, no popped-up images, just a straight forward card.
This week's twist was to be inspired by something in our own homes. I took my inspiration 5 feet out my front door. We have this HUGE climbing hedge of star jasmine that bursts into bloom about this time every year. It smells absolutely AMAZING right now! Love it! It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the twist this week. I was inspired by the colors and the vine-y look of it.


So, I whipped out some of my new stamps by Papertreyink because they immediately reminded me of the jasmine hedge. I still had all of the green paper sitting out from yesterday, so this card came together in decent time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Beyond Basic Borders
Paper- Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Bitty Dots dp
Ink- Old Olive, Basic Black
Accessories- SU scallop punch, ribbon, button, twine

Sweet Sunday Sketch #16

Good evening. I whipped up this simple card so that I could play along with Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. She put together another fun sketch for us. The moment I saw the sentiment location, I knew I wanted to use one of my metal plate frame thingies. And yes, that is the technical term.

I needed this card to be quick, simple, and capable of being complete with mainly one hand. I fell last week and hurt my elbow and still have very limited use of my left arm. It's doing a little better today, so I thought I try my luck with making a card. We'll see if I pay for it later tonight or tomorrow. It also takes a lot longer to type with on hand instead of two.... grrr....

Thus, there was no cutting, no ribbon, nothing complicated on this card. I literally put this card together in about 20 minutes. Now that's a {sweet} card! The color combo was inspired by my lovely roommate's raiding of my ribbons the other day for a project of her own! She was going through all of my green ribbons (boy, I have a lot) and I thought it would be a great color combo for a new card!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies-
Stamps- PTI: Scattered Showers
Paper- Whisper White, PTI- Mellow Moss, Bitty Dots dp
Ink- Old Olive, Basic Black
Accessories- buttons, twine, metal plate thingy (ha!), brads

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #4

It's a beautiful Sunday out here in Southern California. Church was fantastic this morning. Our pastor is doing a sermon series on different world religions, specifically looking at what we, as Christians, believe and what other religions believe. It has been absolutely fascinating, and I have learned so much about the foundations (once again- reminders are always a good thing) of why I believe what I believe.

Anyways, here is my card for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. I love the fact that she only used three colors this week! I can rock three colors. For me, the more colors given, the more stumped I get.

I cased this card from somewhere, but I can't remember who it was or where I found it. It's one I've had saved on my computer for a while now, and finally decided to make a case. So, if it was yours, the card is gorgeous and I just had to honor you by making one like it! I changed the colors, of course, but used similar elements.

Edited to say- Found the source of my inspiration and very obvious case! Thanks for the help! You can see it here.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies-

Stamps- PTI: Guidelines, Verve: Thanks so Much

Paper- Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kraft

Accessories- Ribbon, dimensionals, pearls